robotears
10-03-2007, 08:48 PM
I don't know how many people have heard about this guy already. This is old News but its an awesome story....
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
East Hampton physician Michael Chait accused of running drug ring and Medicaid fraud. (http://medicaresmostwanted.blogspot.com/2007/03/ast-hampton-physician-michael-chait.html)
http://bp3.blogger.com/_sLfJseTuipM/RgLZwqXlI9I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/bI4csrQYW1c/s320/Investigator+Ken+karp+Final.jpg (http://bp3.blogger.com/_sLfJseTuipM/RgLZwqXlI9I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/bI4csrQYW1c/s1600-h/Investigator+Ken+karp+Final.jpg)Dr. Michael Chait is escorted out of his Amagansett office on Tuesday by Inv. Ken Karp. The raid on his office came after a 7 month investigation by the state, county, East Hampton police and the DEA.
Source - http://www.amny.com/news/local/ny-lidrug0315,0,4191916.story (http://www.amny.com/news/local/ny-lidrug0315,0,4191916.story) Hands cuffed behind his back and looking disheveled, East Hampton physician Michael Chait stood before a judge in East Hampton Town Justice Court to face a litany of state charges related to a multimillion-dollar prescription-drug ring he allegedly ran out of his Amagansett office.
Prosecutors said Chait, 46, a South African-born physician who has lived the last three years in Sag Harbor, wrote illegal prescriptions for about 30,000 pills per day at his office in a medical park on Montauk Highway.
The scheme involved "millions of dollars" in fraudulent prescriptions for the painkillers OxyContin and Dilaudid, law enforcement officials said, and involved defrauding Medicaid. His practice is in the process of being closed.
Appearing before Town Justice Lisa Rana, Chait, wearing dark green pants and a green, collared shirt, his hair messy, spoke softly and kept his head bowed the entire time. Several times Rana had to ask Chait to "speak up," because his responses were inaudible.
His bail was set at $500,000 cash. His attorney, Craig Schaum of Garden City, refused comment. Chait is due back in court on March 20.
He did not enter a plea.
The special assistant state attorney general prosecuting the case, Monica J. Hickey-Martin, who is chief of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the attorney general's office, said Chait was handing out prescriptions in the highest-possible doses: 80-milligram tablets of OxyContin, 360 tablets at a time, and 4-milligram doses of Dilaudid, 360 tablets at a time.
She said Chait would get Medicaid to pay the cost of the prescriptions, and if the agency refused, he would get clients to pay the $4,000 for each fraudulent prescription. She said Chait was writing prescriptions for 30,000 pills a day.
Customers allegedly traveled from New York City to visit the office in the building Chait's practice shared with "Curves," a local gym for women that is part of a national chain. The women in the gym, Hickey-Martin said, "were frightened by the men going to his office."
She also said of the practice run by Chait: "There was very little medicine going on."
Though the prosecutor noted Chait lectured patients on their smoking and drinking habits, he still dispensed scores of prescriptions each day.
The prescriptions were filled at pharmacies in the five boroughs of New York City.
Chait was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, a second-degree felony carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison, as well as several other felonies, among them grand larceny.
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday in a statement: "To the extent this doctor allegedly misused the Medicaid system for his own personal profit and exposed individuals to these dangerous drugs, he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
Prosecutors said the investigation into Chait's practice began in January. Investigators are still trying to track where all the pills involved ended up as well as what happened to the profits made by Chait.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
East Hampton physician Michael Chait accused of running drug ring and Medicaid fraud. (http://medicaresmostwanted.blogspot.com/2007/03/ast-hampton-physician-michael-chait.html)
http://bp3.blogger.com/_sLfJseTuipM/RgLZwqXlI9I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/bI4csrQYW1c/s320/Investigator+Ken+karp+Final.jpg (http://bp3.blogger.com/_sLfJseTuipM/RgLZwqXlI9I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/bI4csrQYW1c/s1600-h/Investigator+Ken+karp+Final.jpg)Dr. Michael Chait is escorted out of his Amagansett office on Tuesday by Inv. Ken Karp. The raid on his office came after a 7 month investigation by the state, county, East Hampton police and the DEA.
Source - http://www.amny.com/news/local/ny-lidrug0315,0,4191916.story (http://www.amny.com/news/local/ny-lidrug0315,0,4191916.story) Hands cuffed behind his back and looking disheveled, East Hampton physician Michael Chait stood before a judge in East Hampton Town Justice Court to face a litany of state charges related to a multimillion-dollar prescription-drug ring he allegedly ran out of his Amagansett office.
Prosecutors said Chait, 46, a South African-born physician who has lived the last three years in Sag Harbor, wrote illegal prescriptions for about 30,000 pills per day at his office in a medical park on Montauk Highway.
The scheme involved "millions of dollars" in fraudulent prescriptions for the painkillers OxyContin and Dilaudid, law enforcement officials said, and involved defrauding Medicaid. His practice is in the process of being closed.
Appearing before Town Justice Lisa Rana, Chait, wearing dark green pants and a green, collared shirt, his hair messy, spoke softly and kept his head bowed the entire time. Several times Rana had to ask Chait to "speak up," because his responses were inaudible.
His bail was set at $500,000 cash. His attorney, Craig Schaum of Garden City, refused comment. Chait is due back in court on March 20.
He did not enter a plea.
The special assistant state attorney general prosecuting the case, Monica J. Hickey-Martin, who is chief of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the attorney general's office, said Chait was handing out prescriptions in the highest-possible doses: 80-milligram tablets of OxyContin, 360 tablets at a time, and 4-milligram doses of Dilaudid, 360 tablets at a time.
She said Chait would get Medicaid to pay the cost of the prescriptions, and if the agency refused, he would get clients to pay the $4,000 for each fraudulent prescription. She said Chait was writing prescriptions for 30,000 pills a day.
Customers allegedly traveled from New York City to visit the office in the building Chait's practice shared with "Curves," a local gym for women that is part of a national chain. The women in the gym, Hickey-Martin said, "were frightened by the men going to his office."
She also said of the practice run by Chait: "There was very little medicine going on."
Though the prosecutor noted Chait lectured patients on their smoking and drinking habits, he still dispensed scores of prescriptions each day.
The prescriptions were filled at pharmacies in the five boroughs of New York City.
Chait was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, a second-degree felony carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison, as well as several other felonies, among them grand larceny.
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday in a statement: "To the extent this doctor allegedly misused the Medicaid system for his own personal profit and exposed individuals to these dangerous drugs, he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
Prosecutors said the investigation into Chait's practice began in January. Investigators are still trying to track where all the pills involved ended up as well as what happened to the profits made by Chait.